DOCSLIB.ORG

Children in Combat

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Children in Combat HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CHILDREN===S RIGHTS PROJECT January 1996 Vol. 8, No. 1 (G) CHILDREN IN COMBAT INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................2 RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................................................4 ANGOLA ...................................................................................................................................................................5 BURMA .....................................................................................................................................................................6 EL SALVADOR.........................................................................................................................................................6 ETHIOPIA..................................................................................................................................................................7 LIBERIA ....................................................................................................................................................................8 MOZAMBIQUE.......................................................................................................................................................11 PERU........................................................................................................................................................................13 SUDAN ....................................................................................................................................................................14 LEGAL STANDARDS ON RECRUITMENT AND INVOLVEMENT OF CHILDREN.....................................17 THE UNITED NATIONS ........................................................................................................................................19 APPENDIX: Age Limits for Military Enlistment and Conscription (as of November 30, 1993) .............................22 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 485 Fifth Avenue 1522 K Street, N.W., #910 New York, NY 10017-6104 Washington, DC 20005-1202 Tel: 212 972-8400 Tel: 202 371-6592 Fax: 212 972-0905 Fax: 202 371-0124 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] INTRODUCTION Throughout the world, thousands of children are used as soldiers in armed conflicts.1 Although international law forbids recruiting children under fifteen as soldiers, such young children may be found in government armies and, more commonly, in armed rebel groups. Armed forces, both governmental and non-governmental, often claim that the children in their camps are there for their own protection and welfare. In fact, however, the involvement of the children in the conflict puts them in grave danger and is detrimental to their physical and mental health and development. In 1994 and 1995, the Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project and Human Rights Watch/Africa conducted studies of child soldiers in Liberia and Sudan.2 Other Human Rights Watch reports have included information on child soldiers in internal conflicts in Angola, Burma (Myanmar), El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Peru. This report concerns the ways in which children are recruited, the possible reasons for their recruitment and participation, the roles children play in combat and in violence against civilians, and their treatment by the groups that recruit them. It does not deal with all of the countries in which child soldiers are used, but only with countries in which Human Rights Watch has investigated the practice. Legal standards for the prevention of the recruitment of children and problems in applying and enforcing them are covered as well. Countries caught up in internal conflicts are often characterized by a disruption of state structures or seeming chaos as a result of the fighting and the violence against entire communities that may accompany it. Families are broken up and displaced, children are orphaned or separated from their parents. The basic needs of survivalCfood, shelter, and clothingCmay be looted or destroyed. The unaccompanied children in these shattered societies become especially vulnerable and are most susceptible to recruitment and ill-treatment by fighting factions. The laws of war in situations of internal conflicts, no less than those in larger theaters, may be observed largely in the breach. Children are recruited into fighting forces, whether governmental or rebel, in a variety of ways. Some are abducted and forcibly recruited or are coerced to join through threats made against them or their families. Others join Avoluntarily@ because they believe that they will be provided with much-needed protection or food; they may also be drawn by promises of education, money, other material goods, or prestige. Some children join to avenge the killing of parents, other family members, or friends. Many join because they believe they have no alternative. 1 A former director of UNICEF in Geneva, Samir Basta, estimates the number of child combatants at 50, 000. Other estimates place the number as high as 200,000. Mark Frankel, ABoy Soldiers@ Newsweek (International Edition), August 7, 1995, pp. 10-11. 2 See Human Rights Watch/Africa and Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project, Easy Prey: Child Soldiers in Liberia (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1994); Human Rights Watch/Africa and Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project, AThe Lost Boys: Child Soldiers and Unaccompanied Boys in Southern Sudan,@ vol. 6, no. 10, A Human Rights Watch Short Report, November 1994; Human Rights Watch/Africa and Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project, Children in Sudan: Slaves, Street Children and Child Soldiers, (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995). Human Rights Watch Children=s Rights Project 2 January 1996, Vol. 8, No. 1 (G) Many armed forces, both governmental and nongovernmental, that have children in their ranks try to justify the presence of the children by claiming that the children joined voluntarily. Article 4(3) of the Optional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, which applies to internal armed conflicts, states, AChildren shall be provided with the care and aid they require, and in particular:... (c) children who have not attained the age of fifteen years shall neither be recruited in the armed forces or groups nor allowed to take part in hostilities.@ The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Commentary to this provision states: ANot only can a child not be recruited, or enlist himself, but furthermore he will not be >allowed to take part in hostilities,= i.e., to participate in military operations such as gathering information, transmitting orders, transporting ammunition and foodstuffs, or acts of sabotage.@3 Many of the children targeted for recruitment by warring factions are among the most vulnerable. Often these children have been orphaned or separated from their families during the conflict. Some are recruited from refugee camps and camps for the internally displaced, others from camps to which governments have sent so-called street children.. Recruiting groups often benefit from the socialization of children into violence from a young age and from the militarization of society as well as from other cultural values. These groups manipulate, perpetuate, and play upon societal perceptions that guns equal manhood and power or cultural norms that dictate the unquestioning obedience of children. Children are used by fighting factions in many ways. The involvement of children in war ranges from front- line fighting, to spying or serving as informers, to serving as errand boys. Many factions claim to use boys as guards or for manning checkpoints rather than for frontline fighting. Children acting in these supposedly non-combat roles, however, are often subjected to dangerous conditionsCincluding combat. Human Rights Watch has found, moreover, that many children are used not only in auxiliary roles, but are actually required to take part in atrocities committed agains civilians, captives, or others who are placed hors de combat. Child soldiers are often physically and psychologically abused. Not only are children forced to bear witness to and participate in atrocities, but many are beaten, tortured, and deprived of food. Others are given drugs and alcohol which may lead to addiction and/or brain damage and other health problems. Some children are sexually abused, and forced to abuse others. Armed groups often justify the presence of children in their midst by claiming that they serve as substitute parents for the children. The children, however, are deprived of a normal childhood and education; instead they are taught to kill and loot. Many of these children, some as young as eight and nine, are armed with fully-automatic assault rifles and are directly involved in fighting. Many have been killed or severely wounded, tortured, physically abused, and deprived of food. In addition to witnessing horrific events, many have themselves killed, raped, and looted; often these atrocities have been committed against civiliansCeven members of the child=s own family. This may make reunification and reintegration efforts more difficult; some communities refuse to accept them because of their actions during the conflict. In other instances, families and villages have been wiped out or families internally displaced, making reunification of children with
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Introduction
    INTRODUCTION The culture of justifying physical and spiritual murder in the name of faith and religion is nothing but an anomaly that expresses a perverse criminal mentality about the general behavior and morality of human societies. Whatever its motives and justifications, the violation of the right to life and encroachment upon these rights is outside of the realm of humanity itself, and the infringement on the life of dozens of people can only be interpreted as barbaric behavior far from human morals and values. This is the situation of dozens of extremist organizations and militias active in Syria, Iraq, and other regions around the world. Dozens of their members travelled long distances (thousands of kilometers) for one goal, which was to infringe upon and end the lives of others. In the beginning of 2011, the rate of sadism increased. For many moral deviants, it seems that the culture of hatred has been and continues to be the main instigator of this tendency. In an effort to investigate this in the context of the human rights situation before and after its crises, The Rojava Center for Strategic Studies (NRLS) monitored the activities and projects of fundamentalist organizations and military forces vying for power and wealth in Syrian territory, researched reports of international human rights organizations and institutions, and interviewed dozens of fighters from various nationalities. What was found was that there has been a serious increase in the rate of human rights violations. These organizations and militias reached the levels of absolute barbarism, using exile, imprisonment, suppression of freedoms, tyranny, torture, physical and sexual slavery, murder, and impeding or preventing medical and humanitarian aid to thousands of civilians.
    [Show full text]
  • Community Intervention As a Means to Destigmatize Child Soldiers and Permit Reintegration a Comparison Case Study of Uganda and Iraq
    Awarded Theses 2017/2018 Julia Runte Community Intervention as a Means to Destigmatize Child Soldiers and Permit Reintegration A Comparison Case Study of Uganda and Iraq ema, The European Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation JULIA RUNTE COMMUNITY INTERVENTION AS A MEANS TO DESTIGMATIZE CHILD SOLDIERS AND PERMIT REINTEGRATION. A COMPARISON CASE STUDY OF UGANDA AND IRAQ JULIA RUNTE FOREWORD The Global Campus of Human Rights is a unique network of more than one hundred participating universities around the world, seeking to advance human rights and democracy through regional and global cooperation for education and research. This global network is promoted through seven Regional Programmes which are based in Venice for Europe, in Sarajevo/Bologna for South East Europe, in Yerevan for the Caucasus, in Pretoria for Africa, in Bangkok for Asia- Pacific, in Buenos Aires for Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Beirut for the Arab World. Every year each regional master’s programmes select the best master thesis of the previous academic year that is published online as part of the GC publications. The selected seven GC master theses cover a range of different international human rights topics and challenges. The Global Campus Awarded Theses of the academic year 2017/2018 are: • Balan, Ecaterina, Comparative Analysis of Minority Women Rights Protection in Moldova and Ukraine in the Light of the International Human Rights Standards, Supervisor: Yuliya Vashchenko, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in the Caucasus (CES), coordinated by Yerevan State University • Ccotarma Ttito, Sally Sumico, The Influence of Extractive Companies on Police Intervention in the Context of Socio-Environmental Conflicts in Peru: Analysis and Legal Contributions from the Cases Concerning Xstrata and Yanacocha Companies in the Period 2011-2012, Supervisor: Clara María Minaverry, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
    [Show full text]
  • Encountering Children in Conflict Zones: the British Experience
    Encountering Children in Conflict Zones: The British Experience Michelle Lynette Jones Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of PhD Department of International Politics Aberystwyth University 2016 Declaration & Statement Page Word Count of Thesis: 106,945. DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Signed (Michelle Lynette Jones). Date STATEMENT 1 This thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated where *correction services have been used, the extent and nature of the correction is clearly marked in a footnote(s) Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references. A bibliography is appended. Signed (Michelle Lynette Jones). Date *this refers to the extent to which the text has been corrected by others. STATEMENT 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations Signed (Michelle Lynette Jones). Date ii Abstract With contemporary conflicts being fought amongst and alongside civilian populations, the likelihood of professional soldiers encountering children during military operations has increased. Legal frameworks concerning the topic of children in armed conflict are born from sociological understandings surrounding the Western concept of childhood based on the idea that children are innocent and in need of protection. Within theatres of armed conflict children can be encountered by military forces in two distinct ways; either as innocent bystanders or as security threats. However, a moral dilemma can occur when a child, who is armed and capable of a lethal attack, is encountered by an adult soldier, whose values resonate with the Western concept of childhood.
    [Show full text]
  • CHILD SOLDIER Year 2001
    CHILD SOLDIER Year 2001 BY ALI MUMTAZ SHAIKH 1 CHILD SOLDIER INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................ 3 BATTLES TAKEN OVER BY CHILDERN ............................................................ 4 INTERNATIONAL STANDARD .............................................................................. 5 LOOPHOLES IN THE OPTIONAL PROTOCOL ................................................. 7 VOLUNTARY OR FORCED RECUIRMENT? .................................................... 13 CHILD LABOUR ...................................................................................................... 16 PROBLEMS WITH DEMOBILIZATION AND REINTEGRATION. ............... 18 PREVENTING FUTURE RECRUITMENT .......................................................... 20 CONCLUSION .......................................................................................................... 23 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................... 24 2 INTRODUCTION “I would like to give you a message, please do your best to tell the world what is happening to us, the children. So that other children do not have to pass through this violence”1 These are the words of a 15 year old girl in Uganda. Like her, there are tens of thousands of children under the age of eighteen who are serving as child soldiers in about thirty six conflict zones. Most child soldiers range from the ages of 15 to 17 years but there are also those as young as
    [Show full text]
  • 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report" (2006)
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Human Trafficking: Data and Documents Trafficking at the University of Nebraska 2006 2006 Trafficking inersons P Report U.S. Department of State Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtraffdata Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons U.S. Department of State, "2006 Trafficking in Persons Report" (2006). Human Trafficking: Data and Documents. 46. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/humtraffdata/46 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking at the University of Nebraska at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Human Trafficking: Data and Documents by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. T RAFFICKING TRAFFICKING IN P ERSONS IN PERSONS REPORT R E P OR T — J UNE 2006 JUNE 2006 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLICATION 11335 OFFICE OF THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS Revised June 2006 This page intentionally left blank. I N T R O D U C T I O N Dear Reader: The movement to end trafficking in persons is more than a human rights objective; it is a matter of global security. President Bush's National Security Strategy reaffirmed our belief that promoting democracy and human rights is the most effective long-term strategy for ensuring stability. Included in the Strategy's goals for ending tyranny, spreading freedom, and championing human dignity is our commitment to ending human trafficking: "Trafficking in persons is a form of modern-day slavery, and we strive for its total abolition.
    [Show full text]
  • Military Children and Families F C Hil Dr En VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2 FALL 2013
    Military Children and Families T he Fu Military Children and Families tu re o re f C VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2 FALL 2013 hil dr 3 Military Children and Families: Introducing the Issue en 13 The Demographics of Military Children and Families 41 Economic Conditions of Military Families 61 Military Children from Birth to Five Years 79 Child Care and Other Support Programs 99 Resilience among Military Youth 121 How Wartime Military Service Affects Children and Families 143 When a Parent Is Injured or Killed in Combat V ol um 163 Building Communities of Care for Military Children and Families e 2 187 Unlocking Insights about Military Children and Families 3 199 Afterword: What We Can Learn from Military Children and Families Nu mb e r 2 F a ll 2013 A COLLABORATION OF THE WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS AT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY AND THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION The Future of Children and the Military Child Education Coalition jointly developed this issue of the journal to promote effective policies and programs for military-connected children and their families by providing timely, objective information based on the best available research. Senior Editorial Staff Journal Staff Sara McLanahan Kris McDonald Editor-in-Chief Associate Editor Princeton University Princeton University Director, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, and William S. Tod Jon Wallace Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs Managing Editor Princeton University Janet M. Currie Senior Editor Lisa Markman-Pithers Princeton University Outreach Director Director,
    [Show full text]
  • Probation and Community Corrections
    PROBATION AND 15 COMMUNITY CORRECTIONS The extension of probation for felonies still encounters strenuous antagonism and distrust. Most of this antagonism flows from the fear that probation will undermine the efficiency of punishment as a deterrent of crime. Formerly, severity of punishment was believed to be the great deterrent. Severity of punishment has not deterred crime to any great extent. — FRANK WADE, CONGRESS OF THE AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION, 1923 INTRODUCTION This chapter considers those forms of correctional supervision that take place outside secure confinement in jails and prisons. These alternatives, founded on probation and the suspended sentence, supervise more than twice as many offenders as are held in secure confinement. Probation is the principal option to imprisonment, but increasingly other intermediate sanctions are being used to fill the gap between prison and probation, which has led to the vast expan- sion of formal community corrections alternatives over the past thirty years. After reading the material in this chapter, you should be familiar with: 1. The history of the suspended sentence and probation in America. 2. Probation work and administration. 3. Probation as a sentence and a process. 4. The profile of probation clients. 5. Questions about the effectiveness of probation. 6. The range of controls provided by intermediate sanctions. 7. The options available under community corrections. 8. The pros and cons of intermediate sanctions and community corrections. 9. The future of probation and community corrections. CORRECTIONS OUTSIDE INSTITUTIONS When Americans think of punishment for serious criminality, we are predis- posed to imagine removing the criminal from society and putting him or her in a secure box—jail or prison—to spend a block of time.
    [Show full text]
  • Eighteenth-Century Childhood
    Eighteenth-Century Childhood Teacher Resource Guide Book One: Children at War Authors: Melissa Hennig, M.A. B.Ed. Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Phd., Professor of History, Trent University Copyright 2020 Funded by Social Sciences and Humanities Council Eighteenth-Century Childhood: Teacher Resource Guide 2 Eighteenth-Century Childhood Resource: Children at War Themes • Child soldiers • Childhood experience • Growing up Connections to Ontario Ministry of Education Curriculum Strand A. NEW FRANCE AND BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, 1713–1800 • A1.1 analyse key similarities and differences in social values and aspects of life between people in present-day Canada and some different groups and communities, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities, in Canada between 1713 and 1800 • A1.2 analyse some of the main challenges facing various individuals, groups, and/or communities, including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and/or communities, in Canada between 1713 and 1800 and ways in which people responded to those challenges • A2.1 formulate questions to guide investigations into perspectives of different groups and communities, including First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit communities, on some significant events, developments, and/or issues related to the shift in power in colonial Canada from France to Britain • A2.2 gather and organize information and evidence about perspectives of different groups and communities, including First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit communities, on some significant events, developments, and/or issues related
    [Show full text]
  • The Guardian, May 26, 2004
    Wright State University CORE Scholar The Guardian Student Newspaper Student Activities 5-26-2004 The Guardian, May 26, 2004 Wright State University Student Body Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/guardian Part of the Mass Communication Commons Repository Citation Wright State University Student Body (2004). The Guardian, May 26, 2004. : Wright State University. This Newspaper is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Activities at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Guardian Student Newspaper by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WSU remains Bush gives no ilonda Civic WSU golf fin- low on the specifics in lour comes lo national sui- ishes 27th in Ohio cide average NCAA competition pq 12 Wright State University's Student Newspaper No. 29 Vol. 40 ! Wednesday, May 26, 2004 I A CM A All-American Newspaper need financial awareness S Pips to ensure gradu- money I don t have," said Cliff Bull- ates manage their debt master. senior electrical engineering major. Kan Dapore Another tip Willis said students should remember is to p ay bills online. Dapore^@vwightedu "This will become important as your energies get focused on your career and WSU seniors will more than like- starting a new life after school." Willis ly face some financial issues after grad- said. uation, however there are tips that tan 'I don't pay any bills online right aid students taking their first steps into now, but in the future 1 may choose to the real world.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Living the Second Chimurenga
    1-9.fm Page 1 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:57 PM FAY CHUNG Re-living the Second Chimurenga Memories from the Liberation Struggle in Zimbabwe With an introduction by Preben Kaarsholm THE NORDIC AFRICA INSTITUTE, 2006 Published in cooperation with Weaver Press 1-9.fm Page 2 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:57 PM Indexing terms Biographies National liberation movements Liberation Civil war Independence ZANU Zimbabwe RE-LIVING THE SECOND CHIMURENGA © The Author and Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2006 Cover photo: Tord Harlin The Epsworth rocks, Zimbabwe Language checking: Peter Colenbrander ISBN 91 7106 551 2 (The Nordic Africa Institute) 1 77922 046 4 (Weaver Press) Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm, 2006 1-9.fm Page 3 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:57 PM Dedicated to our children's generation, who will have to build on the positive gains and to overcome the negative aspects of the past. 1-9.fm Page 4 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:57 PM 1-9.fm Page 5 Wednesday, October 26, 2005 4:57 PM Contents Introduction: Memoirs of a Dutiful Revolutionary Preben Kaarsholm ................................................................................................................ 7 1. Growing up in Colonial Rhodesia ...................................................... 27 2. An Undergraduate in the ‘60s ............................................................ 39 3. Teaching in the Turmoil of the Townships ................................. 46 4. In Exile in Britain ...........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • «Rights of Persons with Disability in the Armed Conflict in the East of Ukraine»
    SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS «RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITY IN THE ARMED CONFLICT IN THE EAST OF UKRAINE». ANALYTICAL REPORT OF THE UKRAINIAN HELSINKI HUMAN RIGHTS UNION KYIV 2016 УДК 342.7-056.26](477:100) ББК 67.9(4Укр)400.7+67.9(0)400.7 П 67 Th e proposed publication provides the overview of the situation of persons with disability who live in the ATO area or are internally displaced. Based on outlining the international human right and humanitarian law standards to the extent of protecting persons with disabilities during the state of emergency or martial law, armed confl icts, terroristic acts, emergencies and/or the threat of their occurrence, the national legislation is analyzed for compliance to the international standards. Th e report contains comments from children and adults with disability about the problems of evacuation form the warfare area, integration in to safe territorial communities, observance of the rights of IDPs with disability. Th e study fi ndings are summarized in the recommendations which, once implemented, will demonstrate the fulfi llment of Ukraine’s international commitments. П 67 «Rights of persons with disability in the armed confl ict in the East of Ukraine». Analytical report of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union / Larysa Baida, Pavlo Zhdan, Bohdan Moisa, Yevheniia Pavlova, Myroslava Statkevych / overall edition by Arkadiy Bushchenko. / Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union. — Kyiv, ………., 2016. — … p. Th is report is published due to the generous support from the American people provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the framework of Human Rights in Action Project (http://helsinki.org.ua/nashi-proekty/), implemented by Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.
    [Show full text]
  • Committee on the Rights of the Child Examines Reports of Azerbaijan on Sale of Children and on Children Involved in Armed Conflict
    Committee on the Rights of the Child examines reports of Azerbaijan on sale of children and on children involved in armed conflict 18 January 2012 The Committee on the Rights of the Child today considered the reports of Azerbaijan on how that country is implementing the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and on children involved in armed conflict. The delegation of Azerbaijan, which was led by Hijran Huseynova, Head of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children’s Affairs of Azerbaijan, said the training of officials on the Convention and its Optional Protocols was a very pressing issue and much more effort was needed, but the will was there. The problem of sex tourism was being targeted through awareness-raising campaigns. Azerbaijan had acceded to the United Nations Convention on Preventing Organised Crime and its Protocol on suppressing human trafficking. A free and safe shelter existed for victims of human trafficking, equipped with help from non-governmental organizations. In the last year over 600 children were referred to that shelter, where they were provided with psychological, social and legal assistance. The delegation said students in military and cadet schools could not be involved in any military activities until they reached the age of 18. There was still conscription in Azerbaijan, and those who reached 18 were called up for 18 months of military service. Those with a university degree would go into officer training, and those without a degree would undertake other types of military service.
    [Show full text]